


I'd Like To Paint Your Beauty

by PeskyPendragon



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 06:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15090656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeskyPendragon/pseuds/PeskyPendragon
Summary: Kara stays late after a girls night to help Sam finish Ruby's science project.





	I'd Like To Paint Your Beauty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [canarywest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/canarywest/gifts).



> Happy [DCCW Rarepair Swap!](https://dccwrarepairswap.tumblr.com/) This is my first time participating and my first time writing something that isn't a roleplay reply so I'm pretty excited and rather nervous about it. I had the opportunity to write for [Canarywest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/canarywest) | [irissdanvers](https://irissdanvers.tumblr.com/) I hope they enjoy it and I hope anyone else who reads it does too!
> 
> Huge thanks to [Ciscosbarry](http://ciscosbarry.tumblr.com) | [Coopbastian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coopbastian/pseuds/coopbastian) for being my beta for this.
> 
> Title is a lyric from Paint Your Picture by Steve Hackett

“…And after their epic quest came to an end, our explorers made their triumphant return to Starhaven to find the air once again smelt like cinnamon, and all was well, never to be disturbed again.”

With a small wistful sigh, Kara turned her attention back to the youngest Arias, who was definitely not looking like she was about ready for bed. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

“Wait, that’s it?! Kara, you can’t leave me with just that,” Ruby said. “Happily ever after is great and all, but I need to know more! Like, did the plant sources thrive again as well? Did the people ever view the explorers as equals or were they held as heroes forever? I must know!”

Chuckling softly, Kara pushed up her glasses before offering Ruby a simple shrug, which had the pre-teen groaning playfully.

“That story will have to follow next time I’m over, because if I go back downstairs and tell your mom that you are still up—and in fact more awake than ever—then we’d both be in trouble. But I’ll tell you the sequel next time.”

With a reluctant nod from Ruby, Kara was finally able to have her settled for bed, tucking her in, wishing her goodnight. Slowly making her way back down the stairs, she couldn’t resist hopping off the last step.

Truly with the ever busy life in National City, Kara had never really been able to make true friends. Sure, there was Winn and James, but she’d never had girlfriends—and there really was something so special about being able to have a girls night, drinking wine, sharing stories, laughing about the more embarrassing stories. It was a new kind of safe place that she’d never felt before and it was truly a blessing to be able to have all of this. As just Kara. Without Supergirl having to be involved.

“So, Ruby is all tucked in and story timed out. Was there—?”

Pausing in her tracks, Kara slowly rose a brow as she watched Sam rushing around the kitchen, cutting the crusts off sandwiches, setting juice boxes aside, and double checking multiple lists that were probably appearing in her mind.

Sliding on to the stool in front of the kitchen island, she just decided to observe the other until her presence was noticed. Which resulted in a very startled Samantha.

“Oh jeez, Kara, I didn’t even hear you come down,” Sam said. “To be honest, I kind of forgot you were still here, how awful is that?”

“It’s not awful at all! You’ve gone into total mom mode, it’s fascinating to watch actually. But Ruby is in bed, I told her a space story.”

“She really does love your stories, she says it’s almost like you’ve been there by the way you can tell stuff. It’s no surprise you became a reporter.”

“I have a very active imagination, which surprisingly doesn’t help much with reporting because I’ve been told no one wants to hear my thoughts on things. But thank you. Is there anything else you wanted help with? And…are those peanut butter sandwiches up for grabs?”

Instantly perking up the moment the bag of bread, jar of peanut butter, and butter knife was in front of her, Kara eagerly got to work building her little sandwich.

“I couldn’t ask you for anything else, Kara, I mean—I invited you here as a guest tonight and I felt bad enough asking you to help Ruby out. I should be fine, I got the lunches done and all that’s left is Ruby’s science project. Which I know I shouldn’t do for her, but you can only keep a kid occupied by paint for so long when she’d rather read about the planets than paint them.”

“Wait…it’s a space project? I mean—if you want help with that, I’ll gladly stay. I don’t mind. I still haven’t really been sleeping much.”

“Because of the nightmares?”

“Yep, those pesky things.”

“I mean, the more the merrier! As long as you honestly don’t mind. I’ve heard paint nights are just boring by yourself.”

“Don’t they also involve more wine?”

****

Within minutes, the pair had covered the dining table in old newspaper, gotten paints in old egg cartons, had brushes set up, clean water at the ready, hair tied up, and old paint covered shirts replacing their fancy blouses from the evening.

“Gotta admit,” Kara started, holding out the bottom of the overly large plaid shirt and she grinned as she looked it over, “I’m not very confident in your painting skills if these shirts look like this, unless painting the shirt was the goal.”

Chuckling at the shove she got from Sam, Kara curiously looked over everything on the table as well as the little styrofoam planets that were held up on small metal rods. “You know,” she continued, “I do find it really neat that younger generations are still taught about the solar system. Even if it’s just a very small part of it. When I was in school here, I was so excited and I had wanted to do this massive solar system project—I’d even gotten Alex on board, since she’s always been a nerd, but Eliza told us that considering we had built it in the garage and it took up the whole thing, if there wasn’t a way for us to get it out of the garage, there wasn’t a way for me to take it to school. So I scrapped that and did a written report instead, but let me tell you it was so cool.”

“I wish you guys were around when I learnt about space,” Sam said. “I think the only unit I got really excited for in school was the dinosaur one. Patricia, my adoptive mother, she even took me to a museum about six hours away so I could see some real dinosaur bones. It was one of the best experiences.”

Pausing her brush strokes to glance over at Sam, Kara couldn’t help but smile as she noticed the small smile adorning her face and soft look in her eyes. “That was really kind of her to do—plus hey! I’ve always wondered about dinosaurs, so you can teach me!”

****

Another bottle of wine opened, hours of dinosaur discussions and debates behind them and with only Venus and Mercury left to paint, Kara could tell that the alcohol from the night was starting to hit her painting buddy, though she had no problem playing up her own pretend intoxication when Sam would lean against her or ask how she was so pretty, to which Kara would reply with asking how Sam was so tall. Although normally she wasn’t the best at pretending to be drunk, she found that it was easy with Sam because Sam was still Sam, just more relaxed and boy, was it nice to see.

Truly, it was always nice to see someone who carries the weight of the world on their shoulders to just relax and be calm. She might be a literal superhero, but Kara wasn’t blind to the struggles her loved ones faced—and she knew Sam had a lot she was carrying, even if she never showed it.

“Hey, Sam, what was your favorite book when you were young?”

The look of pure concentration that crossed Sam’s face almost had Kara wanting to giggle with how adorable it was, and clearly all that concentrating paid off when Sam was quick to perk up and point her paintbrush in Kara’s direction.

“Probably a tie between Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. There were a few books we had to read in school that I didn’t mind and…What? Why are you looking at me like that? I don’t have paint on my face, do I?”

“Sorry, I just…you don’t have paint there yet, no. But those were my favourite books as well, and Wizard of Oz is still a comfort for me. Alex always knows whenever I’m having a bad day or rough time, she comes over and plops down on the couch with me and we watch it. We did when we were younger, too.”

Glancing down at her hands and ignoring the fact they were somehow covered in paint, Kara smiled a little to herself, her smile only growing as Sam’s hand encased her own.

“You know, I’m really glad we met you guys this year. It feels like you’ve been in our lives for forever, even though it’s only been a few months.”

“It is rather nice having someone who’s…experienced a lot of the same things as me,” Kara said. “I mean—I know I can talk to Alex about anything, but at the same time…sometimes I can’t, you know? So I’m really glad to have you, too, Sam.”

Meeting each other’s gazes for a few long moments, Kara could feel the way Sam was playing with her fingers, something she personally did when she was nervous but she wasn’t quite sure if this was the same thing. However, when she lifted her gaze again, there was a different look to Sam’s eyes, almost like a playful, dangerous tint.

She wasn’t sure if it was the wine or not, but the hold on her fingers seemed to tighten, and Kara could feel her own breathing deepen the more her own gaze flickered around Sam’s face. It was only a few mere seconds later that Sam was leaning in closer to her—closer, closer…

“Kara!”

Jolting back at the sudden and very wet paint dollop at the end of her nose, Sam was quick to shoot Kara a playful glare, which quickly followed with a pout.

“I’m sorry! I thought you were trying to sneak attack me, so I wanted to get you first. Personally, I think it looks great! And—hey!”

The brush smearing across her cheek had a smirk settling over her face, and the moment she caught Sam’s gaze again, Kara knew the battle was on!

“Watch my glasses!” Kara said.

“Don’t get it down my shirt, that’s cheating!” Sam whined.

“Watch the science project!” Kara warned.

Paint in hand, Kara made a mad dash for the backyard, being at the ready the moment Sam followed her outside, throwing the paint and using her other hand to quickly run past to smear it across Sam’s shirt as well. The moment she was close enough, Kara couldn’t help the startled squeak that left her at the swift swat to her butt.

“Hey!”

“All’s fair in paint fights and butt smacks, Danvers,” Sam said.

Glancing down at the perfectly painted hand print on her jeans, she leaned over to press her lips against Sam’s cheek, which of course distracted her painting buddy turned opponent long enough for Kara to leave a butt smack hand print of her own.

“All’s fair in paint fights and kisses, Arias!” Kara said.

“You’re going down now.”

****

Watching the entire scene unfold in the backyard of her mom and her slightly nerdier aunt chasing each other around and getting paint all over the lawn, furniture and most importantly each other, Ruby was shaking her head.

“Grown ups,” she commented.


End file.
